Windsor Voters Reject Budget Plan

WINDSOR — Voters rejected the proposed town budget handily, 1,978 to 1,500, at a second vote Tuesday.

The original $107.6 million spending plan was soundly rejected by a 1,923 to 1,225 vote at the first referendum in May.

That spending proposal, which was adopted by the council by a 5-4 vote along party lines in April, with the Democrats holding the majority, sought a 2.94 percent tax increase over this year.

Following the defeat, the council met to make cuts to the spending proposal. After a lengthy disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over the creation of an early childhood education program at Roger Wolcott School that would be funded in large part by state grants, the council voted 8-1 to cut $650,000 from the board of education budget.

The resulting $106.9 million spending proposal voted on Tuesday called for a 2.13 percent tax increase, but the "no" voters came out in greater numbers than before to defeat it, even though the number of "yes" voters also increased.

Councilman Donald Jepsen, the Republican minority leader, said Tuesday that it appears that the proposal for preschool at the Roger Wolcott School is driving the "no" voters to the polls.

"If changing the dollar number doesn't change the votes, you have to believe it's Wolcott," Jepsen said.

Jepsen said he was considering proposing a possible solution at the next council meeting — a special meeting June 8 to make cuts — in which the town, which still owns the school building, holds off on turning it over to the school district until next year.

Jepsen said that would give the school board time to sell the proposal to the public and give it more time to have necessary repairs and renovations made.

The program was set to begin in the fall but no work has begun on the building, which requires extensive renovations. Jepsen questioned whether that work could be done in time for the next school year, considering that the next vote won't be until the last week of June.

The next referendum is tentatively scheduled for June 23.

Mayor Donald Trinks agreed Tuesday that the Wolcott program was probably at the heart of the defeat of the budget, but said that it is out of the town council's purview.

"All we can do is cut a dollar amount," he said. "We can't affect policy."

As for Monday's special meeting, Trinks said he expected to make cuts on both the municipal and education side of the budget.

"We're going to have to dig deep," he said.

The failed budget included $66.5 million for education, which is about a 1.9 percent increase from the current year. It also includes $800,000, or 2.82 percent more, for the town's operating budget; $188,000, or 2.96 percent more, for debt service; and $105,000, or 3.29 percent more, for the Metropolitan District Commission.